This recipe comes from Ema at De Tout Coeur, Limosin, France – home to relaxing retreats and delicious home cooking. Makes about 2-3 jam jars. You can scale the recipe.
1 pound green/red chilli peppers de-stemmed and roughly chopped (use any combination of green/red chillies you like)
1/2 pound garlic cloves peeled
2 oz ginger root peeled
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
Using a food blender or processor to blend all the ingredients together until they are a smooth paste.
Pour the blended ingredients into a saucepan, bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a low/medium. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the chilli sauce is thickened and reduced in volume.
Take the cooked chilli sauce off the heat and pour carefully into clean, sterilized bottles or jars with a funnel. Seal with an airtight lid and leave to cool. The sauce is ready to use immediately. Once opened store in the fridge.
Ross’s Easy Peasy Courgette Pesto
Courgette glut? Fed up of the sight of them? Use this recipe to hide the offending veg and make a super fast, super tasty, super fresh meal. This recipe makes enough pesto for 6 people.
Ingredients
6 courgettes, ideally around 12 cms long. Don’t use the oversize ones, as they may be too bitter for this recipe.
3 tbs olive oil
1 large clove garlic
handful of fresh basil
1 tbs pine nuts (or use cooked chickpeas as an alternative)
salt & pepper to taste
chilli flakes for dressing
Method
Courgette & Chocolate Chip Muffins
Adapted from Allrecipes UK
This is a great recipe for using up all those pesky courgettes coming into season now. The ones I used were a drier variety, which meant I needed to add a bit more water to get the right consistency. I also reduced the oil and sugar to make a less sweet muffin.
Ingredients
200g plain flour
100g caster sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
100ml vegetable oil
80ml soya milk
1 tbs lemon juice
200g grated courgette (excess moisture squeezed out)
100g bar of dairy free chilli chocolate (cut into chunks) or choc chips
Method
Recipes supplied by BHOGG member Jenni.
Here’s a simple, easy and tasty recipe with all of June’s wonderful produce in mind! Thanks to Bhogg Chairperson Jenni for the recipe. I can’t wait to try it out!
Potatoes
Broad Beans
Peas
Lettuce
Radishes
Any other seasonal veg
Smoked Peppered Mackerel OR Goat’s Cheese OR smoked tofu /tempeh
Quantities will depend on how many servings you want (and how much produce you have!)
Chop lettuce and radishes into a large salad bowl. Prepare strips of mackerel /cheese /tofu (you can heat these if you prefer).
Shuck peas and broad beans and place in a steamer. Boil the potatoes until they are just off being fully cooked, then place the steamer over the top to finish. Add the potatoes, beans and peas to the bed of lettuce, mix carefully and place your choice of mackerel, cheese or tofu on the salad.
Add olive oil and lemon juice, salt & pepper to taste. Serve with crusty bread and a glass of something chilled!
Things have been pretty quiet on the allotment over the winter. Still some hardy souls come along regularly enjoy the peace and tranquillity at the site. And we were treated with some spectacular scenes with the snow.
A gale-force rainy day compelled us to relocate our annual outdoor Winter Solstice celebration to the warmth and comfort of Alan’s house. Mulled wine was sipped, delicious soup and cakes were consumed and carols were sung while the rain pelted the window.
Now spring is here we are looking forward to the regular Sunday sessions 11-1pm at the Weald Allotment site. For more details about how to get there click here.
Here’s what’s happening right now on our allotment: thanks so much to the Princes Trust volunteers!
You can read the full story here, over on the City College website.
Did you know that 15 – 21 November is Brighton Time to Act week?
Our friends over at Brighton CAN (Climate Action Network) are organising an amazing line up of events, including a special climate change -themed Allotment Sunday with us on the 22nd November between 11am and 1pm.
The network campaigns for divestment from polluting industries, the creation of a million climate jobs, against fracking and the continued burning of fossil fuels, and for the expansion of renewable energy, energy conservation, cheap and environmentally clean public transport, and a better and safer urban environment for cyclists and walkers.
We hope to see you on the 22nd… if you want to find out more about the events or the Climate Action Network, pop along to their information stall at the Jubilee Library from 12 – 18 November, or visit their website to find out where you can watch a film, make a flag, enjoy a pint or even cycle to Paris!
Brighton Climate Action Network
Roundup from the annual Autumn Feast (as reported by Ruth)
Autumn’s darkening nights and misty mornings are always a good time to chat about the year in the fruit and vegetable garden so ten of us got together for a natter and to enjoy the rhubarb wine..
We agreed it had been a cold and windy year; too cold and dry in spring and too cold and wet in summer, so lots of crops just sulked. That said, there was a lot of variation depending on location – shelter from wind is a big factor, especially with fruit and climbing beans.
A raspberry variety called Tulameen got a big thumbs up for flavour! In general though, fruit was rather disappointing, due mainly to the cold windy weather at blossom time.
Ruth had a great cherry crop but as usual lost most of it to magpies that seem able to defeat all types of protection!There was the aforementioned excellent rhubarb wine too…[hic]
In terms of veg: spuds did well, as did some onions. White-rot was a big problem in places, although early harvesting before the rains came seemed to have been a good strategy and for garlic too. As a side note: If you did get rot, avoid using that bed for alliums for five years – there’s more info about white rot here.
Sue got great carrots in a large sunny window-box. and there were reasonable beetroots and parsnips. There was a shout-out to Brassicas, which did well where properly protected from their numerous pests. We all agreed, ‘Enviromesh’ works best…
Ruth’s summer broccoli [calabrese] was wonderfully prolific and she declared that she’d grownthe best red cabbages ever. Lots of people reported that sweetcorn was a bit underwhelming, and squash was useless but courgettes good (aren’t they always?!).
There was even some success with cucumbers and protected tomatoes, but of course, ripening was very delayed by the lack of our summer sun..
(c) Organic Gardeners Brighton
A great time was had by all, and it was really useful to get together and share our successes and failings – we live and learn for another season.
If you’re a new gardener, don’t lose heart – it’s always a learning curve, and something will always go right. What’s gone well for you this year?
As we descend from the milder summery autumn to Autumn-Proper (we know, we know, it’s not terribly scientific) it’s a good time to mend paths, fences, bed edging, and sheds. You’ll feel terribly smug come springtime, too.
(c) Szczel
Is it raining? Think that’s an excuse? Oh no. Snuggle down in the shed with a flask and get those tools out: you can clean, sharpen and oil most gardening tools ready for the first flushes of growth (and enthusiasm!) next year.
(c) Lab Cat
Finally, if you’re feeling super keen – and maybe not every year – the greenhouse can be emptied out, sterilised with a sulphur candle and given a good clean out, scrubbing the staging down and cleaning the glass before insulating it. You can also get ahead by cleaning pots and seed-trays now.
(c) Extra-minty
Feeling the turn in the air now? Do up your boots, throw on a jacket and get ready to compost!
First things first: do a final turn to the compost bins to let in more air.The semi-rotted stuff half filling the bins may be too wet or too dry to be ideal, so remake it like lasagne: into a new bin put a layer of dry then a layer of soggy and so on. If it’s all too wet add some crumpled cardboard or newspaper.
(C) Jon Anderson
Keep it covered over winter, – even if it’s not perfect by early spring it can go into the spud and bean trenches. There will be plenty of spent crops to fill up the bins now; try to fill a whole bin in two days to cook it fast – activators such as chicken pellets or even human pee will help; turn the contents after about two weeks to reheat it
(C) Fennel and Fern
…and if all of that hasn’t worn you out, you can always get thinking about a Halloween pumpkin!
